


Beneath: An L2 Girl

by duointherain



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 11:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17766227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duointherain/pseuds/duointherain
Summary: While visiting a hospital, an active shooter situation develops. Relena calls out to Duo for help. She gets to see a side of him that she's going to have trouble forgetting.





	Beneath: An L2 Girl

Beneath: An L2 Girl   
by Duointherain

 

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing

Notes: This was just a sudden thought. As will all my work... canon? What canon? Though I hope my characterizations are good. And I think I need a bowl of ice cream. I’m nervous to write a female pov. Also! I got up to 51 subscribers on my favorite original work today. So... Let’s see if I can do this thing! And now that I’ve done it... I hope it’s okay :) 

Warnings: Graphic violence and death

Notes: beginnings of 1x2, this is set at least half a year after Beneath

 

She crouched behind a file cabinet, heart racing, her phone pressed to her cheek, a hand over it to hide the light. “Come on, come on! Answer the phone.” 

After several more rings, the phone did connect, “Hey, busy now,” Duo said, voice grating, slightly out of breath. An explosion roared through the connection and he groaned on the other side. “What?”

On her side, gunfire dotted like a bad ellipsis. “I was visiting a hospital.” 

Another explosion, followed by an avalanche of metal on metal. “Fucking son of a bitch,” Duo screamed, followed by a sound that Relena had no idea what it meant, but it maybe sounded like burning plastic and boiling raccoons and she never wanted to hear it again. Panting, teeth clenched. “Point?”

“They’re shooting... us.” The gunfire sounded closer. Relena pressed a hand to her other ear. “I don’t know what to do.”

Something skidded, squealed. Duo’s next sound made Relena open her eyes wide, breath caught. “Are you okay?”

“Fine. Shoot back!” 

“What?”

“They shooting at you. Shoot their fucking asses!”

“I... can’t.” Tears started then, afraid for him, ashamed of herself, frightened. 

Duo grunted, smacked things in what Relena realized must be his gundam. “Be there in twenty. Till then. Don’t be you. You’re from L2. Think like it.” 

Born and bred on Earth, the first thing that hit her mind was that would be cultural appropriation. “I’ll be okay,” she whispered. 

“Twenty,” Duo screamed, “Shit! Mother fucker! I will end your sorry fucking ass! 01, you piece of shit, watch your nine!” 

Heero yelled back something so loud that Relena could hear it and while she didn’t speak Japanese, she was sure that Heero was just as profane as Duo. They were a matched fucking set. 

“Yes, you fucking three of spades, hit the depot! We gotta go. Location sent, details enroute.”

“When did you become the leader,” Quatre asked, sweet voice, with some edge of broken glass in it. 

“‘Lena’s on the circuit,” Duo said, “Watch yer fukin’ mouth!” 

“Oh hello, Miss Relena. Duo, if you would please pay attention to those retreating at your five.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Duo said. 

Shaking now, tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry.” 

“Shut up. I gotta make a call.” 

Relena sat up a little straighter, stared at her phone screen. She was on hold. Duo Maxwell put her on hold. Then she realized she was holding her breath and slowly took a breath, as quietly as she could. 

There was no sound when she was taken off hold, Heero just came on, voice calm as refidgerated rice. “o2 said to speak with an L2 accent. Remove and hide all valuables. Pretend you’re Duo.” 

“I can’t swear that much,” Relena whispered.

“Change your clothing. They are seeking you, in particular.” 

That made it all better. Completely all better. 

A woman screamed, fairly close to where Relena was hiding. The pops of gunfire followed.

She chewed at her lip, thought about her route in. Her security detail had been with her then and everything had been so normal. They’d come in through the parking garage, the worker’s entrance. They’d passed the morgue on the way up. Now she was chewing her upper lip. She went over the route back to the service hall. Maybe it was better to just stay where she was. That was what the trainings had said. Hide. Stay quiet. 

“Don’t shoot me!” A voice yelled, loud, shrill, young, close.

Relena peeked out from behind the file cabinet. The door had a small window in it. Just outside she could see a man, hair the same brown as Duo’s, but short. He turned to look, but she snapped back behind the metal file cabinet, holding her breath as if that would keep him from seeing her. 

Quickly, she took off her earrings, her jewelry and shoved them under the cabinet. Heart racing, she pulled her hair into a ponytail, messy, but less elegant. She slipped out of her suit jacket and quickly flipped her designer tee-shirt inside out. Bag and shoes got tucked as far down in the corner as she could. 

In the hall the girl was crying and the man was yelling. Her own head about to explode, heart really threatening to just fucking stop if she dared to move, but she got up. Back to the cabinet, she tried to remember everything Duo had ever said to her, especially when he was upset. She was his little sister. Yeah. 

She tightened her jaw, squared her shoulders, and attempted her best murder strut to the door, which she opened as casually as she could. In her very best imitation of Duo’s near patois, “What da fuk you doin’, ya bastard!?”

The man looked at her, semiautomatic machine gun resting on his hip. “Sister?”

The little girl turned out to be a cancer patient, with several other children huddled behind her. Eyes locked on the man, her chin lifted as she tried to make a Duo-Murder-Face. “What’cha do’in scarin’ fukin’ children?”

“We’re lookin fer Relena Peacecraft!”

“Do I look like fukin’ Relena Peacecraft ta ya? Do these sick kids?”

“No,” the guy said and he motioned for the kids to go on. 

Relena seconded that, urging them to hurry on. 

“The Peacecraft bitch went to the roof,” Relena said, her accent fading a bit. 

Another woman ran into the hall, also armed and wearing an armored vest. 

“Our sister says that Peacecraft went to the landing pad on the roof!” He was already walking towards the stairs. 

Relena was breathing a little deeper. 

The woman pressed her tongue against her cheek, pointed at Relena. “That’s Relena Peacecraft, idiot.”  
Relena bolted. The hall ended in a T. She went the direction that the children hadn’t. One good thing about being terrified is that it will make you run fast. She made to another turn. She never saw the hand that grabbed her, but it jerked her hard into another room. A hand went over her mouth and all she could see were the whites of frightened eyes. 

She nodded. The hand uncovered her mouth. Then she realized she left her phone in her purse. 

The two after her banged on doors with the butt of their weapons. “Here kitty, kitty! Come out now! That way no one else gets hurt! We don’t want to hurt anyone!” 

Relena covered her own mouth, but it did nothing to still her heart. What she really wanted was the stuff that they’d had when they exploded the math building. She closed her eyes and imagined great heaping piles of foam sweeping those two away, filling the barrels of their weapons so they’d never fire again!

With her eyes closed, she was completely unprepared for the squat little man that pulled the door open and yelled, “She’s in here! Don’t hurt anyone else!” 

Head resting against the wall, Relena wasn’t sure that the world hadn’t just turned inside out. People sat on the floor, huddled where they could hide, crying or in various levels of shock. Relena scrubbed at her face, took a slow deliberate breath, then stepped back out into the hall. “Don’t hurt anyone.”

“Fucking bitch,” the armed man said, right before he put a hole in the squat little man’s head. 

Relena lifted her chin, squared her shoulders. “You didn’t have to do that.” 

“No? Just like you rich fucks didn’t have to take all the resources! But you did!” The man grabbed her by the arm, spun her around and zip tied her wrists. “You think you’re so fucking smart! You think you’re better than we are!” 

The woman fired into the room, sweeping back and forth, not caring how much ammunition she used. Relena didn’t even feel the blow to her temple. Sometimes shock is a good thing. 

When she woke, she was bent over a table, her skirt up around her hips, wrists behind her back. Her mind just disengaged. In that same moment, Duo appeared in the door. blood on his lips like he was a feral beast. It was oddly beautiful, pale face, violet eyes, bright red blood on his mouth. He really had a lovely mouth. 

The weight that had been laying on her lifted and she slide to her knees. Duo had the guy by his shirt, fist pulled back and then blood flew over the table like a shattered water balloon. The force drove the man back and pulled Duo along with him, fist already drawn back again. Heero was right behind him, pistol out and he dropped the woman with a permanent dot between her eyes. 

On the floor, knees bent to either side, Relena stared up at Heero, seeing his expression clearly, more clearly perhaps than ever before. The way he watched Duo was something more than partners, maybe more than healthy, more than human. 

Still beating the man, Duo rode him down to the floor. Heero’s thin lips lifted into a very tiny smile, and Relena struggled to her feet. “Don’t kill him! Duo! Don’t kill him.” 

Madness. When Duo looked up, blood covered his teeth, dripped down to his chin. His eyes were unevenly dilated, and Relena felt a new and different kind of fear. Her hair stood up on end. Trembling, shaking, she stared. 

“Too late,” Duo said, his grin wide and bright, utterly surreal with his bloody teeth and crazed eyes. 

Heero touched the com in his ear, nodded. “Building is clear. Local law enforcement en route. 03 has medical supplies. 02, disengage.” 

Duo reached to the pistol holstered at the small of his back and put a bullet through the dead man’s eye. 

Maybe it was some of the shock wearing off, but Relena connected the blood on Duo’s mouth to internal injuries. “Oh Duo! Are you hurt?” She ran to him, dropped to her knees by him, eyes searching through his madness for the boy who was her best friend. “Are you okay?”

“Fuck no,” he said, weapon safety on, reholstered. “You promised me a world without poverty. You better deliver, princess.” 

“Oh Duo, I am so sorry! Heero! He’s hurt!” She looked back over her shoulder to see Heero already closing on them, his weapons also holstered. 

“He’ll be fine,” Heero said, deadpan, no emotion, but Duo melted into his arms as Heero picked him. Standing there for a moment, Duo nearly passed out in his arms, head on his shoulder, braid trailing, Heero glared at Relena. “Be more careful. Your security team betrayed you.” 

“Oh.” 

A couple steps away, Heero broke into a run. Law enforcement was decidedly not their friend either. She struggled back to her feet, standing there with the dead man’s blood soaking into her stockings. “I’m going to make the world a good place!”


End file.
